A recipe for Nigerian stew.

This stew might come in handy for your weightloss diet. I find that the use of the fresh ingredients make this healthy   Please note that this stew recipe does not include meat or fish.  It is a base stew which can be prepared ahead of time, and as it contains no meat or fish it can hold in a refridgerator for two weeks, or in a freezer for four months.  If you want to have a meat or fish stew take out from the base and add to the meat or fish, however, once you add meat or fish to the stew it will only stay good for three days in refridgerator, frozen longer. At all times boil meat first on it's own and the remove it from the stock and then add to the stew.  the stock must be refridgerated so that all the fat will solidify, and then scrape off the fat  from the stock before you use it.  For chicken, make sure you remove all skin before cooking in the same way after making the chicken stock refridgerate and remove the solidified oils.

2 fresh Red bell peppers( sweet.)
1 or 2 orange habanero peppers
2 medium sized sweet yellow onions or 1 large.
10 Roma tomatoes.
1 can crushed tomatoes 16 oz-24 oz.
1 can hunts tomato paste.
Sea salt to taste.
Cayenne pepper dried to taste.
Freshly ground black pepper to taste.
2-4 table spoons of corn, groundnut, or mazola oil.

In a food processor adding as little water as possible blend all the fresh ingredients, then place in a large pot and begin cooking on medium heat, as soon as mixture starts boiling reduce the heat to low and add the canned tomatoes and tomatoe paste.  Continue to steam this stew for about 1 1/2 hours on low heat until all the liquid has evaporated.  then add 2 - 4 tablespoons of corn or mazola  oil, increase heat, and fry the stew for five to ten minutes stirring  all the while.

The 1-2-3- step weightloss program

Portion control:


From now on eat off a side plate, make sure the piece of protein is smaller than the size of your palm and the rest on your plate is vegetables.  This should be your dinner.

 A per fect breakfast:
A bowl of oatmeal with small amount soy milk and splenda.

take note the oatmeal fibre produces insoluble fibre for the diet and this helps to lower blood cholesterol as well.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Exercise recommendations of twenty minutes per day are a third less than recommended by the AMA. However, my own theory is that if people hear of this recommendation they are apt to give up before they start a diet and exercise program.  as such, I personally favour the chinese approach of " a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Take five minutes a day, and tell yourself positive things, and imagine your new self.

next week I will give you some ideas for a detoxifying diet to jump start your weightloss, and for this you will need to have the ability to make fresh juices with a juicer.

The 1-2-3- step weight loss blog

I have come across a  weightloss blog that might be helpful for those of us who are in a constant battle of the bulge, and I will give you here a few excepts for you to think about:
First of all, there are no gimmicks involved in this weight loss program, there is no cost to you, and you do not have to pay money to discover how to decrease your belly fat, nor do you have to use your hard earned cash to buy expensive foods.  I think you will find the tips I give useful.

#1: Stop eating out and eat only food cooked at home by your family.
#2. Stop all consumption of refined flour(white) and sugar and high fructose corn syrup.  At the same time switch over to whole wheat flour and increase your fiber intake.
#3. Commit to a cardiovascular fitness program of twenty minutes per day with the goal of cross training: alternate bike riding, with walking, swimming, tennis, running, yoga. And two sessions of twenty minutes twice weekly of building upper body strength with weight lifting.


Supplements:
Calcium: 1 gm per day, cheapest source is in tums.
Vitamin D; 1,000 I.U. per day.
Psyllium fiber supplement: Metamucil: 1 tablespoon three times daily with 8 ozs water.
Niacin 500 mg one tablet three times daily
baby aspirin 81 mg/day.
Consume green tea as a beverage, crystal light.

In addition please note the following:

1. Portion control.
2. Avoid red meats as much as possible, substitute with skinless chicken breast and fish.
3.Avoid dairy products: In particular for people of west african descent there is a very high incidence of lactose intolerance.  Moreover, the consumption of dairy products in the vegetarians of India lowered the benefit or completely ameliorated the benefit of a meat less diet as these dairy products are high in saturated fats and cholesterol. If you must consume milk then use soy milk products. 
4. avoid alcohol consumption, or limit it's intake to 1 drink per day for a female and 2 drinks per day for a male.
5. aim for three to five servings of fruits/veggies per day.

over the next few posts I wil elaborate on sample diet menus that you prepare ahead of time.  I will also go over some of the very popular detoxifying diets.

I think the bottomline to successful weightloss is do not expect this to happen to overnight, and above all you must be optimistic and patient with yourself.  i also want to advise all the people who do not have a work out place, you can walk up and down in one place, or around a room or a compound; obviously that is very boring, but it will accomplish your goal, meet me next week.

Nigeria, a recipe for success amongst nations.

There is nothing about old age that is kind, or beautiful nor memorable and loveable.  The body can no longer match the virility of the spirit as it soars in dreams to the highest heavens. In the deep furrows of the fore head are etched the years of angst, and the once round and perky cheeks become deepened hollows and chiseled in appearance.  Nowhere in the world is the effects of this aging so apparent as in Nigeria, where the aging is accelerated by the general insecurity of every day life, and the continous anguish of absence of healthcare, absence of the basic amenities of life as water, and decent shelter and a reasonable expectation of a daily ration of food, in a once fairly prosperous society.  But nothing surpasses  the hopelessness etched into the brows of the ordinary man, who from experience knows that nothing can change, nor can improve for the every day man as long as the status quo is maintained.  If one talks of a physical slavery in the past, then surely it must be matched by the modern day  equivalent of an economic slavery which is held in place by the chains of an artifactual sovereignity upheld by brute physical force  practiced by a successive array of corrupt regimes.  In Nigeria, as in so many African countries, the people have been cheated by all: by the colonial masters who only sought to better their own countries economies with little or no regard for the indigenous people; but over and beyond that, was the worst betrayal of all, to be cheated by your own people, to have your patrimony stolen from you right under your own eyes.  In the same vein, the kidnappings in the nation rivals that during the hey day of slavery in the nineteenth century in West Africa.  This is the legacy of the civilian administrations, and all the preceding military dictators, who pillaged the public coffers like a private piggy bank and then turned around and asked the public" Why will you not dance with me?"
So the argument should be, if Nigeria is not a failed state, then pray where are it's successes?  If you are going to say a state is not a failure then it must have succeeded in something.
Is the success the fact that we have a presidential jet that toils all around the world a ? cost when our citizens cannot have access to clean water.
Is the success the fact that there are more and more areas of the country where you cannot even be guaranteed the freedom to walk on the street in broad daylight without the threat of abduction or being bombed?
Or does the definition of success mean, that the 5% of society who have cornered the entire GDP of the country to themselves have fastened their grip on the Nigerian economy to ensure no one else can gain access?  The list goes on and on, no, I am convinced, this is not the recipe for success, but rather one for a disaster.

A robbers den, the protegees of Father Michael

 In a dark room in Asata, a young man laid on a small six spring bed and beside him sat his friend who tended to him, as the man was injured. Then the young man on the bed turned towards his friend,“I went to a place, and I was surrounded completely by darkness, and I fell to the ground; and I must have lost consciousness.  Because when I woke up, I woke up in this bright place, the brightest place I have ever been.  I think I must have gone to the gates of heaven and have been sent back, because I remember thinking to myself, Oh! This place is so beautiful and so peaceful, I would not mind staying here forever.  Then the next thing I remember, I woke up in the bush by the Asata stream, and I knew I had returned to this life when my nostrils were filled with the smell of rotting garbage and human excreta.  And I tried to move my left arm and I had a sharp pain in my shoulder.  The bullet missed my heart by a few inches! Ah, the life of violence takes it’s tolls: He who lives by the sword shall die by it!  If not, for my mother’s rosaries and daily prayers, I too would have succumbed to the fire power.”

“ Brother, you are so hypocritical, you call on God to advance you in a life of a strife?  You ask for your mother’s prayers whilst you are rampaging through town firing gun shots?”

“And if I did not ask for my mother’s prayers, then tell me whose prayers would I have asked for?  She has little else to do than to spend all her widowed days in the church praying for mercy, for me and then for herself.  Yes, it is a paradox; but then what is not?  This whole country is little more than a paradox or a joke if you will, of the gods abandoned by our ancestors, in the long run it will amount to little more than a foot note in our history, just as colonialism already is. Are you trying to say that God does not listen to the prayers of sinners? If he does not hear the prayers of sinners, then who will be saved?  Maybe now my mother has obtained the answer to her prayers, and I will be finally converted and abandon a way of crime....  I stop for as long as the money lasts, and I swear to give up this life, but then the same thing happens over again, no money, no jobs, and I go back to the streets to make a living.”

“I am telling you, I am converted now, I saw the great light, I am telling you, I was at heavens door, and I was sent back, and this is my last chance to abandon this life of evil.”

He then laid his head back on the dirty pillow which was stained by blood that had oozed past the rag that was placed on his shoulder to keep the bleeding in check. His brow was covered in sweat, and his body shivered despite the heat, and then suddenly he regained his strength and sat bolt upright in his bed and grabbed the collar of the man who sat beside him and with urgency declared, “I may be many things, Oke, I am a thief, a swindler, a liar. and will not hesitate to make money any way I can by fraud or cheating. but one thing I never did, and I drew a line, I never committed an act of murder; I drew a line, and I said I am not a murderer, just a thief, and to that God is my witness.” Then he fell back on his pillow as if the exertion had required super human strength and he continued, “ Oke, put my rosary around my neck, and take me now to the hospital because this wound is worse than yesterday, and when you have left me at the hospital find mama and tell her where I am.” Without saying anything,

Oke dutifully picked up a white plastic rosary that sat on the table beside his friend and he carefully guided it over his friend’s head trying to jar him as little as possible.  Then he went out into the room adjacent where two members of the gang were sleeping on the floor.  He nudged them awake, and said “brother is getting worse, we will take him to UNTH and after he has been admitted before the police can come and interrogate us we must leave immediately.”

The two who slept on the floor got up and did not seem to think the request unusual.

Not long after, under the cover of darkness, a body wrapped in a wrapper was carefully placed in the back seat of the car, and was transported to the emergency entrance of the hospital.  He had hardly been placed on a gurney in the outside corridor awaiting the arrival of a doctor, when the friends hurriedly drove away.

By the first morning light the widow Mrs. Obiageli was already seated by her son’s side, and she was wiping his brow with a damp white handkerchief.  From his left hand emerged an intravenous infusion being used as a vehicle to administer antibiotics to combat the infection which was ravishing his body through the shoulder. Wound.  For the most part he slept, but when he awoke he would regard the vision of his mother with unparalleled tenderness, as if she were part of his vision of heaven.  Her face betrayed no anger, but instead she sat with an aura of resignation at fate.

The story of Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi continued

A good owambe party requires a decent band, a vivacious crowd, and large quantities of food and drink, all in an effort to declare ‘surplus’ for all. The Adetayo compound in Bodija estates of Ibadan had all this, and more.  The older guests were restrained, yet their age proved no barrier to the afforded enjoyment.

        It was a clear night, and in the sky above the full moon lit up the night skies and shone down enveloping the compound in a surreal shimmer.  In the center clearing the dancing was in full swing, and the crowd obediently gyrated rhythmically to the beatings of the drum, and just as a waves rising to their peaks and then crashing to the shore in bubbling surf, the dancers would rise and alternately bow down towards the ground in a graceful sweeping motion.  The dance floor was full, but not to the point of being a crush.  For some reason one could not help but feel that some of the dancers were present for that express purpose, and for the ‘spraying’ of naira bills on their foreheads that this opportuned.

For the most part, Jide and his small entourage of friends kept to a table by themselves.  Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi sat silent in no mood to dance.  He was content to continue in the role of an observer, except this time  at closer quarters. As he watched the younger dancers with interest, he noted the beauty of the fairer sex and was affected by their charms.  However, he could not escape the thought that beside the beautiful Bola no one there could hold up a candle to her beauty, not even his lover Yetunde.

As a matter of course, all good times must come to an end, and so must the bad times and mediocre ones.  In spite of Tokunbo's attempts to the contrary, the weekend had continued under the dark cloud of loss occasioned by the absence of Bola.  By the time Yetunde had been safely returned to her campus, it had become obvious that her lover had undergone a change of heart.  Of course, he was in no hurry to announce his disillusionment to her; such words, that can occasion much pain, and cannot easily be retracted- so foolish he was not.  And, as such, he said nothing to his lover either way.  On the one hand, he made no further efforts to encourage her in love and in all its associated banalities, and allusions, to their ‘future life together’; on the other hand, he was careful to not discourage her love, for fear that he might lose a love so pure and so hard gained.  On their return to Ife he had dismissed her with a peremptory kiss on her cheek, and  he had declined to escort her upstairs to her room, on the grounds of being in a hurry to make it to Lagos before dark.  Her eyes had eagerly searched his looking for an explanation but all she had met was a blank face, as clean as an unused slate, not betraying even a hint of the emotions that raged in his soul.

Finally, alone, and at peace, he took stock of his situation in the relative tranquility of his car.  By the time he pulled into the backyard of his flat in Ikeja he had made a decision, and this was the only honorable thing he could do: he would continue with his suit to Yetunde, fully aware of the increasing desire he nursed in his soul, as an unquenchable thirst, for the beautiful Bola.  

Mrs Toyin Ajayi senior satisfies her curiosity:

Later on in the week on the Tuesday following the return from Ife Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi presented himself at his mother’s house in his customary manner.

The place for him was set, and his mother had cooked a vegetable soup which was served with garri.  They were seated opposite each other on the dining table; and when the son was not paying attention the mother would  lovingly look over at her son.  The more she looked, she was convinced that she could see the beginnings of dark circles under his eyes, and she sensed a heightened degree of nervousness in him.

“Ah, you came from Ife just now, give me news about the beautiful Yetunde.”

He did not answer directly, then after a pause, he said, “Why mother, she does well, we were in Ibadan over the weekend for Chief Adetayo’s birthday, it was a nice weekend.”

“Yes, Chief Adetayo, as flamboyant as ever, I am quite sure.  Now, Jide I have not seen in a long time.”

“Jide does well, mother.  Now you ask me about Yetunde, and to tell you the truth I think I do not deserve her..”

His mother looked up from her glass of water, and knew this was the source of the trouble.

“Nonsense, of all the excuses I ever heard for why a relationship is passé, the excuse of she is too good for me seems to be the most lame.”

“Mother, I assure you, I most certainly do not deserve her, this girl is young and inexperienced.  I think I would do better with someone with some maturity and experience.”

“I think I quite do not follow you, I would have thought that you would be extolling her virtue of innocence, instead I find you holding it against her as some form of vice or shortcoming.  How strange the world is be- coming, I cannot pretend to follow your train of thought.”

He shrugged his shoulders and decided that his mother would not understand, indeed could not understand, and that she never would.

“Never mind mother, it is a passing thought; we are still together, a happily assembled unit all thanks to you and auntie.  Of course we are happy, but with time, the intensity of the emotion must fade slightly, I think that is the natural course of events.  No longer do I imagine her to be perfect, nor does she imagine me, having seen to bear my short temper this weekend.”

“You have had your first quarrel?”

“Hardly a quarrel, more a misunderstanding. It was that I had invited her and her room mate to Ibadan for the party, only to find out when I had arrived that the room mate had gone to London for the weekend, and I felt quite illused as she had promised to accompany us to Ibadan.” He continued, “And of course, I was quite upset, and she saw that I am quite inflexible, but in a good way.”

His mother smiled as she could imagine her son’s reaction to the affront, “Yes, I can see you reacting to that.”

From his mothers house he drove to visit Mr. Olumide, his older friend, and after they had settled down to a glass of cognac, and whilst puffing on a Cuban cigar he decided to come down upon the subject which was the real reason for his visit.

“I have a friend who is in trouble and I wanted to ask you your opinion.  Now you see this friend of mine was introduced to a very nice and young lady earlier in the year, and from what I saw he fell deeply in love with the girl and asked for her hand in marriage; not from her parents, mind you, this was a secret engagement.  In any case, as time goes by he meets a friend of the girl, and to his utter dismay he finds that not only is she more beautiful than the first, but she is also more charming, and he finds himself thinking of the new girl all the time, yet he never tells his fiancée about it.  Now the question I pose to you is what should I tell my friend to do?”

Mr. Olumide thought hard and long, and then he answered, “I would think your friend quite a cad of a man, surely he must have more imagination than to be falling in love with his fiancées best friend?”

“Is that not an oversimplification? Is it possible to love two women equally at the same time?”

“What a question you pose to me! Love two women at the same time? Can a man be slave of two masters?  Either he will love the one more or the other.  Yet in our culture, theoretically speaking a man loves all his wives equally; whereas we all know that in fact he does not, he will always prefer the one over the other, because her personality agrees with him, or one is more beautiful etc.  So the answer I will give to you is no, a man can not love two women equally any more than he can be a slave of God and mammon.”

“ It is so interesting that you say that, for that is exactly what I told him myself, however, he said that that still did not help him to decide and he insists that he is in love with both.”

.

An Owhambe party in Ibadan continued, the story of Toks Ajayi.

The trip to Ibadan was uneventful enough.  Tokunbo found himself concentrating on the road, and as the sun was setting in the west he found himself driving directly into the sunlight and being blinded.  Externally he appeared to be fully recovered from the disappointment, and he exerted himself to the utmost to act cheerful in the presence of his fiancee.  But in his heart he nursed a gnawing sense of sadness which he could no longer deny to himself was due to the absence of Bola.
They arrived early at Jide's home, and after exchanging the usual greetings with his mother and the main celebrant Chief Yemi Adetayo, they settled into the upstairs parlor to await the arrival of the guests.  Outside in the compound of the house located in the exclusive Bodija estates, the band was preparing the stage and their instruments, and the caterers were setting up a variety of tables under large canopies.  the tables could be seen filling up with large varieties of food, enough to please any and all, there was a soup of Egusi soup on one table, and across from it there was a table set up with rice, and stew, and fried meats.  Little trays filled with meat pies and sausage rolls, were arranged, with a large cake iced in white and Blue with the number fifty written upon it.  In the center of the compound there was a large tent which had seats and tables arranged, and in the center there was left a clearing for dancing.  The bar seemed to have an endless supply of drinks, with crates and crates of beer, and wine and stout, stacked beind the bar ready for the party.
In the parlour there was Jide sitting still in his western dress, and he looked tired from running errands all day.  Beside him sat a pretty young girl who appeared to be his girlfriend.  Another young man by the name of Dapo sat alone on a chair and seemed to have started the party early as he had a bottle of cold beer standing on the small table beside his chair. 
Tokunbo was restless, and he alternately paced the room, and then looked out at the party unfolding before his eyes, as more and more guests filled up the tent, and the band started to sing.  It seemed as if no one in the parlour was in  a hurry to join the events outside, but were content to watch it unfold from their position of advantage.  Then, Tokunbo who had been irritated the whole evening could no longer hold his disillusionment with life in any longer, and walked up to the window and looked out and said,
"Yes, look down upon the life of the Nigerian elite, and tell me if you do not think anything odd about it. Here we have ladies weighed down by their weight in gold around their necks, and do not forget the laces from where, china? or is it India?  Look at the line up of luxury vehicles, that have transported these lucky souls here. And a stones throw from here, look outside the city gates of  this man made heaven, into a veritable hell, with the starving masses clamoring for entrance.  Hoping to function as dogs at the masters' table to rescue a few crumbs. You know, if I have said it once, I will say it again, the french nobility, and Marie Antoinnette, were doing the same in France, before the french revolution; they had their outrageous parties whilst the masses of Paris were starving, and what was it that Marie Antoinette said when told of the hungry masses who could not find bread to eat, " then let them eat cake...". " " That is how I feel right now looking down upon this, yes, a disconnect, a total disconnect of the 5% who enjoy the countries wealth with reckless abandon, from the struggling masses. What will be the outcome?  I wonder will the day come when we will become the enemy of our own people, and when every man who drives a car, or who has a house will be fair game for the teeming masses? There is some inequity in this society that I cannot quite put my finger on, for there can be no other explanation for how such wide disparities can exist in the same society let alone be tolerated.  But I am not an economist, and I dont pretend to be one, but the last thing in the world that a starving man wants is another lecture on the economical potential of the black african giant."
The man Dapo, could not agree more.
" Yes, we are a veritable success of a nation, where 33 million of our citizens must relieve themselves in the bush! I find this annoying, because basic sanitation does not necessitate running water per sei. What ever happened to a pit latrine?"
The others laughed.
"No, I am serious about it."
" I think the problems are more fundamental, lack of accountability in our leaders, and rampant corruption, and an economy which is nonsustainable."
Before the conversation could delve any deeper the steward came in and announced that Jide was requested to come down immediately by his mother.